Perfume Genius
Ugly Season
Release Date: Jun 17, 2022
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Matador
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Album Review: Ugly Season by Perfume Genius
Great, Based on 5 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Fans of Hadreas's work thus far may miss his more conventional vocal performances and pop-craft, particularly given the accessibility of his last release, 2020's Set My Heart on Fire Immediately. Even approached as a free-standing project, however, Ugly Season is a sublime and evocative sequence, Hadreas and producer-instrumentalist Blake Mills breaking important and impressive ground. "Just a Room" launches with panoramic synths, soon transitioning into a minimalistic blend of tinkly piano notes and string accents, Hadreas offering a palimpsest of vocal hums.
Based on rating 3.9/5
Unmake my name Pick no bones, erect no pretexts: tune your ears to Perfume Genius (aka Michael Hadreas) immediately. Full disclosure, I have neither detailed familiarity with his full body of work nor, from what I have heard, any particular interest in exploring it any further. His magnetic new record Ugly Season has been hailed as a striking departure, and I am more than happy to embrace the latter half of that description for all it's worth on the strength of the former.
Based on rating 7.5/10
For Mike Hadreas, also known as Perfume Genius, every new album acts as a sort of sonic transformation. Few artists have evolved more artistically while maintaining such a high level of consistency and intrigue. Starting out with lo-fi piano ballads in his 2010 debut, Learning, Hadreas brought on producer Blake Mills and embraced grander sounds and diverse styles on 2017's No Shape and 2020's Set My Heart on Fire Immediately.
Based on rating 7/10
Rolling over the horizon like a mass of purple clouds, a swarm of pealing organ and bleating drones announce a dramatic shift in weather -- it's Ugly Season. Mike Hadrea's latest record as Perfume Genius was written to accompany The Sun Still Burns Here, his immersive dance collaboration with choreographer and friend Kate Wallich, and its music is a slow-building storm of pure, carefully-wrought action. It urges one to move more explicitly than his previous work, dictating form and motion in ways his scintillating art pop has only hinted at.
Opinion: Excellent
Perfume Genius continues to mutate (sonically) with fifth album 'Ugly Season', showcasing another glorious side to his rich sound. Emerging more avant-garde with each release, Perfume Genius, also known as Mike Hadreas, is delving deeper into the experimental, dissolving his chamber pop foundations. 'Ugly Season' follows on from 'Set My Heart On Fire Immediately' – a record about human connection, grounded in the bodily.
'Ugly Season'
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